Somaly Mam, 2006 Women of the Year Honoree: What’s She Up to Now?

Editor's note: In May 2014, Newsweek reported that Somaly Mam, the founder and face of the Somaly Mam Foundation, had fabricated some aspects of her personal history, including some of her own experiences with sex trafficking. She subsequently stepped down from the Somaly Mam Foundation. That foundation and dozens of others continue to support the battle against the very real problem of sex trafficking worldwide.

In her powerful memoir, The Road of Lost Innocence, Somaly Mam, a 2006 honoree, tells the heartbreaking story of her wretched childhood, spent mostly in Cambodian brothels. The book (published in the United States in September) recounts her successful escape and her quest to save other girls from the same fate. Writer Susan Dominus caught up with her this fall.

Glamour: You were sold into sex slavery by a guardian when you were young, raped daily and tortured—even with electric shocks. It must have been pain- ful to relive the horrible details in the book.SOMALY MAM: Yes, I cannot read even one page of it now. But I want to inspire other victims. In the brothel, everything is dark; you can’t see your way out. Maybe reading my story will show others they can escape. And I want people to understand the victim’s life, what she is feeling every day, how she got there.

Glamour: I know you still go to the brothels to help girls get out. What’s that like?SM: I have received death threats for my work, so when I go I wear a wig or a baseball cap or sunglasses. I see girls dying of HIV, I see girls who have been raped by 20 or 30 men. I can’t always help them. You have to be strong to escape and be prepared to face many problems.

Glamour: What type of training do you give the girls you’ve gotten out?SM: If girls have financial independence, they can say no to the brothels. So we have a hairdressing shop and sewing machines for them to learn skills.

Glamour: How has life changed since Glamour wrote about you?SM: Before the articles in 2006, we felt like no one heard us. But since the Women of the Year awards, we get hundreds of e-mails every day from people wanting to give money, wanting to get involved. All those people make me feel so much more hopeful that we can stop this abuse. Glamour opened the big door.

Editor's note: In May 2014, Newsweek reported that Somaly Mam, the founder and face of the Somaly Mam Foundation, had fabricated some aspects of her personal history, including some of her own experiences with sex trafficking. She subsequently stepped down from the Somaly Mam Foundation. That foundation and dozens of others continue to support the battle against the very real problem of sex trafficking worldwide.

In her powerful memoir, The Road of Lost Innocence, Somaly Mam, a 2006 honoree, tells the heartbreaking story of her wretched childhood, spent mostly in Cambodian brothels. The book (published in the United States in September) recounts her successful escape and her quest to save other girls from the same fate. Writer Susan Dominus caught up with her this fall.

Glamour: You were sold into sex slavery by a guardian when you were young, raped daily and tortured—even with electric shocks. It must have been pain- ful to relive the horrible details in the book.SOMALY MAM: Yes, I cannot read even one page of it now. But I want to inspire other victims. In the brothel, everything is dark; you can’t see your way out. Maybe reading my story will show others they can escape. And I want people to understand the victim’s life, what she is feeling every day, how she got there.

Glamour: I know you still go to the brothels to help girls get out. What’s that like?SM: I have received death threats for my work, so when I go I wear a wig or a baseball cap or sunglasses. I see girls dying of HIV, I see girls who have been raped by 20 or 30 men. I can’t always help them. You have to be strong to escape and be prepared to face many problems.

Glamour: What type of training do you give the girls you’ve gotten out?SM: If girls have financial independence, they can say no to the brothels. So we have a hairdressing shop and sewing machines for them to learn skills.

Glamour: How has life changed since Glamour wrote about you?SM: Before the articles in 2006, we felt like no one heard us. But since the Women of the Year awards, we get hundreds of e-mails every day from people wanting to give money, wanting to get involved. All those people make me feel so much more hopeful that we can stop this abuse. Glamour opened the big door.